Olivier Schopfer’s poem “sunlight on a crow’s wings” closed out another issue of TINYWORDS. Now is your chance. The submission window for TINYWORDS 19.2 opened on August 1.
The entire month of August is the time to send us your small poems or brief haibun for the new issue of TINYWORDS 19.2. We have already received quite a few submissions. Thank you.
Sending work to TINYWORDS is a simple two-step process. Just check out our Guidelines?and click on the?Submissions Page from Aug. 1 through Aug. 31, 2019. One month window, as usual.
To keep things interesting while we work on the new issue, we present a photo in search of a poem. This image of an abandoned church in a field is the current challenge. Why not pen a tiny original poem or two in response to this glimpse of the past or is it present or maybe future? Leave your best efforts in the comment box below and the TINYWORDS editorial team will share the best of the best in TINYWORDS 19.2, due out in late September 2019.
Thanks again for dropping by. We look forward to reading what you have?to say.
abandoned church —
ghosts watch over
the harvest
abandoned church
withered prayers lost
in a dying field
Adelaide B. Shaw
childhood home
my tricycle tracks
still draw a circle
abandoned church
withered prayers lost
in a dying field
All returns to earth.
What seeds we plant,
Grow the spirit.
A secret church
enfolded in green
Grows the spirit.
fertile clouds
on cornfield contrails
the signatures
of neither gods nor aliens
in withered corn
the straight lines
of the cross
even here
in the middle of nowhere
salvation
dried corn stalks
lead to the door
with religion no more ??
circles in the grass
around and around the sound
of a silent bell
maize maze
a child rings
the harvest bell
stale church
graces the old cornfield
as the sun sets~~~?
the echo
of many prayers
a witch hunt
Whoever made these crop circles
left behind
an old church
even here
in the middle of nowhere
fake news
empty church
on an Iowa farm
ears of corn
maize festival
a familiar ring
in the campfire pot
a narrow path
finally an opening
from darkness
still standing
holiness within an
unbroken circle
beside an old church
the path
of least resistance
Autumn corn crowns the
fields. Golden light. No peasants
in this kingdom.
in the middle
of nowhere
once upon a time
Bell tower pokes sky
To spring a leak for brown grass
— working together
unsung melody
a few dried seeds
in the beggar’s pot
still circling
my childhood beliefs
autumn wind
nailed it.
You were right. :-)
forgotten church
a prayer book
gathers dust
ghost moon
the wind turns the pages
in the hymn book
food
over
abandoned faith
circling around and around
no answers or clues
so I departed
weddings
funerals
still praying for rain
forgotten church
a prayer book
gathering dust
circling the old church
a maize of questions
that have no answers
circling the old church
a maze of questions
that have no answers
abandoned church
only the shadow in grass tracks
prairie dusk
the tumbledown church
leans into it
the heartland
all around it
vacant church
withered country church
surrounded by godforsaken stalks
worshippers left tracts
God
so loved the world
tundra
homage to haiku poet Cor van den Heuvel
sweet. strong. perfect.
step outside
your door
a harvest awaits
abandoned
faith
in a maize field
the field
without flowers
the church empty
on pilgrimage –
a soaring eagle above
the rustle of prayer
wasteland…
in the church belfry
a whistling wind
sundown’s flower
a child becomes mother
becomes griever
Alan Summers
loneliness
the place
we build a home
a crow's nest –
on holy ground –
I have no time to pray
dumped by a lover
I tell the cloud instead
it wasn’t me
Alan Summers
at the epicentre a church
restless wind
at ease in the object of
my affections
church ruin
the weeds whisper
in the pews
taking refuge
within —
harvest mice
cicada shell
interconnected with
the emptiness
abandoned church
a wild weed blooms
on the altar
last stand
wondering where
the pub was
Thanksgiving
on the bedside table
a Gideon bible
all heaven stirs within.
ineffable.
circling again
the path
of history
Peggy Hale Bilbro
faith
without a tractor
intractable
stubble field
the prosperity gospel
no one's buying
country church
cross breeding
faith
pink sundown sky
late light on the field
the church's wall still warm
abandoned church
still filled with prayers
waiting to be answered
August wedding
a double ring
ceremony
many years later
struggling to find the beliefs
I abandoned
the emptiness
of prayers
unanswered
empty
the hymns remain
in the people
plainchant
the offerings
of burnt clay
long abandoned church
the face of a prophet
in peeling paint
searching for God…
down the path without
an end
with all the whys
and wherefores
cornfield church
a child’s toy chapel
decaying in gorse
the child now a man
a child’s toy chapel
decaying amid the gorse
the child now a man
failed marriage
the bells remain
silent
the lengths we go to for redemption
behind the clock a draft
Out of left field
Barefoot
Damned LEGO
ash wednesday
dirt devils skip across
old church road
in grandpa's field
our family history
continues to grow
Once filled with humansong
Now with birdsong…
The old church
to
the belfry
and beyond
Helen – hahahahaha!
marion
Cheers, Marion!
Once
You could find
The crucifix there;
Now – a bird's nest…
Abandoned church
finding a path
out of loneliness
and memories of my past
cornstalks
where the parishioners once sat
all ears
abandoned church
in the middle
of a crop circle . .
will the worshippers
ever return?
abandoned church –
we still sing in praise
of the Lord
farmhouse church
the withering and greening
of our faith
how many prayers
still echo silently
from these forsaken walls?
beyond the burning bush
miracle—
encircled by my loneliness
you find me
small talk
a congregation of birds
in the belfry
rapture…
the sky
almost clear
so many
different circles
in the field of life
keeping them all straight
the faith
inside the circle
hallowed ground still green
frozen time
his last job
covering the debt
for mankind
found church
the new settlers
plant around it
prodigal daughter
I circle Father's house
again and again
scattering these seeds
of poems
a mission
to save mankind
left in its tracks
bells are ringing
even the old stairs
smell festive
Grass grooved from
grieving girls who left;
I circle back
but can?t enter quietly
around and around
the abandoned church
path without end
a cross
in the horizon
someone i used to know
halo sun
the young sing hallelujah
into the night
toy chapel waiting
for the boy who left it there
he is now a man
Ogallala corn
steeple without a prayer
hoping for rainbows
Scarecrow sanctuary
last relic of communion
Bots farm the prairie
circling around
to futile issues …
empty soul
ghost church …
a circle of fears
in my mind
wind rumors?
an abandoned church?
empty vessel
abandoned church
an old rugged cross
atop the steeple
abandoned church
bird song
lifts the rafters
a thread of telephone line
pulling the past
over the horizon
homophonic
church music
of the birds
where people
once worshipped
families of mice
helter skelter
left on the fence
a tattered mat
at the bottom of the tank a monument to man
organ base notes
the wind still cries
Mary
strange stillness . . .
so many believe
in crop circles
old scarecrow field stubble becomes a small mouse
unharvested-
all those prayers
swirling around
GMO's
monoculture–what price
for these sins?
under His eye
the round-about ways
of errant priests
a timeless power
our ancestor's prayers
infuse sacred land
stained glass window
she asks what year
god was born
415 ppm
the Anasazi, too
prayed for rain
the crop still bowing to the Holy Ghost
cornfield
its endless tasseling
with the sky
a sound
from heaven
church in the field
Crop circle church
Aliens meet God
No one knows
only the sky
attends
this old church
only wild grass
to whisper
a prayer
who but birds
sing
in the choir?
layer by layer
a sermon
losing track
desolate church
woodworms nibbling
olden confessions
stuttering
I save my confession
for the casket
something in the grass
tracks toward infinity—
church waits in silence
two crosses mark emphemeral architecture, entombed among corn
and cornflower blue sky and
crumbling to eternity.
left behind
in a crop circle
an empty church
in a whorl of earth sky a hollow church
dropping popcorn he mutters jesus
hallowed ground a sea of corn
almost overgrown temple food for thought
all prays for rain this little church my heart
eroded motte
bailey of weeds –
faith reaching for heaven
always the doubter
even a photo of the church
seems fabricated
in a whorl of earthsky a hollow church
eroded motte
bailey of weeds-
faith still reaching for heaven
anonymity-
the entire sky balanced
atop a steeple
season
after season
circling the field
cultivating
his faith
reminding dreams?—
the one that is
life
lost in the labyrinth
of modern life
desperate souls
seek shelter
in abandoned churches
shepherd’s dismay
the gathered flocks
seek only corn
inside out
prayers to the saint of lost things
flying with crows
climate change
yet another
un-answered prayer
amazing grace
how sweet the scent
of harvest